Old Symphony

C11: A Decade Old Tragedy

Ten years ago...

Like the usual, they were at the abandoned building that Jake found while touring around the neighborhood on a weekend.

Snow's neighborhood was at the other side so he was alone when he discovered a five-story house. The other parts especially the walls are already worn down, only the cement are intact, and it seemed to have been emptied for such a long time. But what he found at the third floor was truly amazing, there was a piano right at the middle, perfect for the practices they were planning to have when their song project in music class were assigned.

They had been spending most of their afterschool time at the building to compose their song. It was finally completed two weeks before the performance. Thus, they spent those two weeks practicing for a perfect rendetion of the first ever song that they have composed.

It was a song both knew spoke of what their hearts really feel for each other without even saying a word. They both knew that the feeling exist but they are afraid to deal with it at the moment. So the song was all they had to still cling on to each other.

However, just a day before the performance, they lost that special piece. Someone stole the copy of their song and they knew that they won't be able to find it after school so they went to the abandoned building to come up with a new song.

"For all I know, it was Andi who took it from your bag. I heard some of her friends talk about her having a piano sheet when in the first place she and Stan haven't come up with anything just yet." Andi is their class muse who was seen kissing with Jake two days ago.

Snow looked at Jake sitting in front of the piano, lost in his thought.

"You know what, Jake, you could've just told me that you wanted to give that song to her. So we could've came up with another song after completing the piece two weeks ago. I would have understood it." Her eyes welled up with tears knowing that she didn't really mean what she said.

"Let me tell you this again, it was her who kissed me that day and I even pushed her away," Jake insisted. He never expected that his jealousy would lead that way.

It was when Snow and Keith had a successful class reporting and he saw how she hugged Keith out of happiness so he tried to make her jealous by talking with Andi, he didn't know it would backfire that way.

"I don't care about who started it. You can keep that experience all to your self, my point is, you could have been honest to me about her." A stray tear fell and she wiped it immediately.

"You want me to be honest? Then, listen to me. I don't like her. Okay? I was just jealous that's why I approached her. That is the truth."

"Jealous of what?"

"Of you and Keith. Look, I—

"Why would you be jealous of me and him? I don't even like him. Why does it seem like you are blaming—

"Because I love you. I love you, Snow." A thunder roared along with Jake's confession. As they looked at each other in the eye, trying to process everything, the rain started to pour and the wind blew off the candle.

Now they're stock in the abandoned building, with an awkward atmosphere after Jake's sudden confession.

"I'll see if we can use the furnace downstairs. We'll catch a cold if we stayed here longer because of the rain." Jake stood up and lit the candle once again. Afterwards, he started to march to the hallway but Snow followed him.

"I'll come with you." She whispered, his words still clinging into her mind.

"I'll call Andi when we get home. And I would report it to our teacher. We would be able to take our song back. I promise, I'll do everything to take it back." Jake assured as they walked down the stairs.

"I'm afraid that's not going to work. She could manipulate the situation. Let's just come up with a new song later. We'll perform whatever output we'll come up with." Their was finality in her words and he could only feel guilty about what happened.

As they were walking towards the furnace at the corner, the wind blew once again and the light from their candle went off.

While trying to light the candle, they saw a light coming from a car and they observed what was happening, hoping they could get some help from whoever was in there.

A while after, a man wearing a black baseball cap and black jacket got out of the car and unloaded something from the trunk. They both looked at each other and knew something was strange so they hid while still observing, both of them feeling afraid and nervous.

Then came a luggage out of the trunk and the man pulled it towards the backyard, just a few meters away from the window at the corner where Jake and Snow are hiding.

The man opened it and both of them gasped at what they saw.  There were severed human body parts inside the luggage and the head made it clear that a woman has been murdered.

"Oh my God!" Snow couldn't help but exclaim as she felt her tears. They thought that was the end but the man poured something that seemed like gasoline and there came fire.

"No no no no. He can't do that. No.—" Snow almost shouted but Jake tried to calm her by turning her to face him and hug her tight.

"It's going to be okay, Snow. Hush now. Please. We need to find a way to ran and ask help." Jake whispered to Snow who was still crying in shock.

The man heard something from the corner as they quickly but carefully vacated the area, doing their best to not make a sound while going to the front door. The man searched for them and the only way for them to escape was to run in separate ways.

"Snow, look at me." Jake held her face and she looked at him, still crying.

"We'll be able to get through this, okay? Just please trust me. I will run to the left and you go for the front door. Run and don't look back. You can run until you reach the school gate, I'm sure we can ask help from the guard. I'll meet you there, you hear me?" Jake instructed but Snow shook her head.

"But I'm afraid to leave you here. That man is scary and dangerous. You can't face him alone." She insisted to stay but Jake shook his head and held her hand.

"That's why I need you to make a run and ask help as soon as possible." He convinced her and before they parted ways, she hugged him tight.

"Please be careful. I love you." She whispered and at the count of three, both of them ran separate ways.

Snow was able to get out through the front door and slowly ran towards the street.

Jake, on the other hand, came face to face with the murderer and he did his best to fight and stop him but as the murderer had a knife, Jake got wounded on his left side thrice. Even with the blood gushing, he was able to fight back, take the knife, and pierce it on the man's stomach making him lose his balance.

Jake tried to ran away through the front door but the man was able to stand up and hit him on the head.

As Snow reached the street, the car's headlight from earlier lit and a loud screech was heard. The car left without waiting for the other man inside the building when he saw blood on Snow.

Before Jake and Snow were enveloped in the darkness, they whispered each other's name and somehow heard the piano, their song playing on the background.